By Elite Reporter
There is turmoil at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Towers in Nakawa, which has exploded and seen many tax officers tumbling down the stairs!
However, their fall has been disguised and sugarcoated as resignation, in our insiders at the URA Tower reveal that these senior Commissioners who purportedly resigned were actually fired, or rather forced to resign by the new Commissioner General John Musinguzi, after allegations of corruption and sex-predating cropped up their profiles, something that breaches the professionalism that URA prides in.
So whereas news has been going around that four top URA Commissioners, who include Mr Dicksons Kateshumbwa, Mr Henry Saka, Mr Silajji Kanyesigye Baguma and Mr Samuel Kahima handed in their resignations, Elite News can exclusively reveal that they were actually fired by Musinguzi on orders of President Yoweri Museveni, following a high level Security Council meeting that was held State House last week, which resolved to weed out all the ‘Kawukumi’ at URA.
Besides President Museveni, the meeting was attended by State Minister for Finance David Bahati, Col. Edith Nakalema who heads the State House Anti-corruption Unit, AIGP Grace Akullo, head of the CIID, John Musigunzi, the CG URA, Chief of Defence Forces Lt. Gen. David Muhoozi, Maj. Gen. Sabiiti Muzeyi, the Deputy IGP, among others.
Following the said meeting, we have learnt that Musinguzi was given powers to crack the whip on all errant senior and juniors officers at the URA, especially those who were very loyal to equally fired former Commissioner General Doris Akol.
It should be noted that Akol was fired by President Museveni in March this year and he replaced her with Musinguzi, whom he reportedly directed to conduct a forensic audit of the Human Resources composition and operations of the URA, to establish who does what and how much they earn.
The development came after the President learnt through whistleblowers that there was a lot of corruption at URA and that seniors officers were making a lot of money, to the extent that a senior officer at the level of Commissioner was earning a whooping Shs400m per week, and many of them were splashing the many on junior female employees, bonking them without fear or favour, whether married or not.
It was alleged that some officials at the URA were conniving with businessmen to bypass the official government taxation system in exchange for kickbacks worth millions of shillings, something the President said is unacceptable.
During the said meeting, Museveni reportedly informed those present that he learnt about the corruption amongst URA officials from Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli, who revealed to him, with evidence, that URA officials were importing Sugar from Brazil and other countries at cheaper prices, them repackaging it in Uganda and selling it to Tanzania at exorbitant prices.
On learning about the mess at URA, it is said Museveni directed Musinguzi to compile a comprehensive report about all senior officers, including their earnings, credibility, diligence and professionalism in executing their duties.
However, Musinguzi’s report pinned several senior and mid-level officer who had been involved in matters that expressed gross professionalism and had to be thrown out of their offices with immediate effect.
But as a professional Chief Executive Officer, Musinguzi knew that if he fired the senior Commissioners directly, there would a stampede in the country and national hullaballoo about URA; so he humbly instructed them to hand in their resignation letters such that they could hoodwink the public that they had resigned, not fired!
Amongst the fired cum resigned officers for instance is Henry Saka, who was the Commissioner for Domestic Taxes. But our insiders reveal that Saka had become a Kandahar Predator of sorts at URA. It is alleged that due to his Kandahar-preying antics, Saka had chewed several babes at URA and would reportedly inject a lot of dime in them, without sparing interns and married.
As a result of relentless drilling sessions, it is said that the man had been the sparkplug for several Kandahar wars both at the URA Tower and away in several homes, something that led to his name to feature in a sex scandal at URA involving Diana Musoke Balaba and her hubby Steven Musoke Balaba, who claimed that she had allegedly forgotten all about her wifely duties so as to attend to Saka’s personal errands.
URA Covers Up Sacking With Statement
Our Insiders reveal that as a way of covering up the sacking of these Commissioners so as to save face, URA announced that Management had received resignation letters from them, but also announced the subsequent changes the Board of Directors had issued the sudden and unusual quadruple resignations.
Here below is the statement from URA;
““The Authority would like to inform the public that on 28th May, 2020 the URA Board of Directors sat and made recommendations concerning the reorganization and Management of URA.
On the 29th May, 2020, the following Senior Officials chose to resign and the Board has accepted their resignations. The said staff are Mr Dicksons Kateshumbwa, Mr Henry Saka, Mr Silajji Kanyesigye Baguma and Mr Samuel Kahima.
Following the above developments and in line with the URA Leadership Rotational Framework, the composition of the Heads of Department and the Large Taxpayers Office will be as follows with immediate effect;
- Mr Mukiibi Patrick has been transferred from the position of Commissioner Corporate Services to the position of Commissioner Domestic Taxes.
- Mrs Patience T. Rubagumya remains Commissioner Legal Services and Board Affairs.
- Mr Herbert Rusoke remains Commissioner Internal Audit and Compliance
- Mr Abel Kagumire remains Acting Commissioner Customs
- Mr Mather Mugabi has been appointed as Acting Commissioner Tax Investigations
- Mr James Kizza has been appointed as Acting Commissioner Corporate Services
- Mr John Tinka Katungwesi will be Acting Assistant Commissioner Large Taxpayers Office.
Other Senior Management positions are not affected by these changes.
Management wishes to reiterate the Integrity, Patriotism and Professionalism will define the new era at URA.”
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